Charging a $16 handling fee is against Ebay's rules. Plus if he said he was shipping fed ex and shipped via USPS then his auction is fraudulent. You said is was shipped for $4.05 which means he sent it priority. Those boxes are free. You can file a grievance against this seller. I don't know what Ebay will do about it but at least they will have record of his/her fraud.

This was not sent priority.It took a full week to get here and he was in Illinois and I am in Indiana.Besides...there was no priority stickers on it as they put them on it.


So if it is against Ebays rules,what should I do?

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~~Sharon~~

I agree. I don't think it is right to leave him neg feedback if you agreed to his terms beforehand. You knew what his shipping fees were. JMO

I think I disagree that it is against e-bay rules. I know when I sell stuff, there is an area where I can put in handling fees and it doesn't tell me that I couldn't charge $16. That is outrageous, but I don't see where you can't. I rechecked, too, and can't find anything there about it.

I would just avoid him in the future. At the most, I would leave neutral feedback since it is partly your fault for not reading. I might contact him about a slight refund since he did not ship as he was supposed to, but, in my opinion, that was the only thing he did wrong. The handling fees are sneaky, I think, but not wrong since he stated them up front.

Reasonable handling fees are allowed. I charge $1 over calculated charges. However, if I was shipping something like a painting or mirror that required a LOT of special packaging, or even building a shipping crate, then ebay's system allows the flexibility in that area to account for higher shipping. However, for most items I would say that $16 is against ebay's rules regarding handling fees. Not only is it most likey fee circumvention (you don't pay ebay fees on S&H), I would be complaining because I paid for priority and it was shipped parcel.

And I agree with checking shipping first. If its high, I don't bid. And if its outrageous, I report them.

I'm actually surprised it took sellers this long to figure this little scam out. Like AuntFlo said, if they charge you out the rear end for s&h, they don't pay seller's fees and thus, make more money. It is however, a very shady way to do business in my opinion. I would never do this because some people don't always pay attention to the shipping fees and like you, think they're getting a really good deal until they get their end of auction invoice. People that cheat the system like that are the ones that force eBay to raise selling fees and that makes me mad. I doubt you'll get much of a response from him, but if you do, tell him you are upset that he didn't ship the method he said he would. You really can't say anything about the handling fee if that was stated in the auction to begin with. It stinks, but unfortunately, until eBay cracks down on these guys, you have to be really careful before you bid. Hope everything turns out ok and you get some money back.

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Mommy to Dakota, Wife to James
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